Sifre Miṣvot

(4,810 words)

1. Rabbanite Sifre Miṣvot

Works in the genre known as books of precepts (Heb. sifre miṣvot) in medieval Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic literature enumerate the precepts of the Torah and sort them according to various methods and diverse categories. Jewish poets in Palestine in late Antiquity began to develop this genre for liturgical purposes. During the Islamic period, it developed further in the parallel channels of liturgy and monograph. Medieval precept books were monographs that dealt with juridical questions but al…